Respiratory infections are known to have a significant impact under the sanitary point of view, as they can cause hospitalization, and under the economic and social point of view, as they are responsible for a large investment in terms of health care resources, as well as for the direct costs of drug consumption and medical examinations, and for the indirect costs due to non-attendances at work and schools.
The frequency with which respiratory infections are found in people is very high, especially in case of sudden climate changes or in the presence of air pollution.
The extreme easiness of diffusion and contagion of these infections also means that they are often epidemic in nature, especially in the most vulnerable individuals such as the elderly and children, and recurrent, especially in immunosuppressed individuals.
The health care institute most affected by the problem is definitely the General Practitioner's outpatient Clinic, who is in the forefront to decide whether to turn to additional diagnostic tests or implement empirical treatment based on clinical, epidemiological and gravity criteria.
In a survey conducted in the United States in 1995, infections of the upper respiratory ways were the main cause of medical examination before the General Practitioner's and Emergency clinics, with 37 million medical examinations and 52% of patients with uncomplicated upper respiratory infections, treated with antibiotics according to the “National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey”.
In fact, the most widely used method of treatment of these infections is exactly to make use of antibiotics, in most cases administered without a real and actual need, especially considering that these diseases have a complex aetiology due not only to the presence of bacteria, but often rather to the simultaneous presence of various other types of microorganisms, such as viruses and fungi.
Among the viruses that cause these infections, influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, human adenovirus, enterovirus, human rhinovirus, the Epstein-Barr virus, metapneumovirus, human coronarovirus, the respiratory syncytial virus, etc, can be mentioned.
In particular, human Adenovirus, human Rhinovirus and human Coronavirus are also known to cause diseases of various degrees at both respiratory and eye level, and in the pediatric population and in immunocompromised/immunosuppressed patients or patients suffering from other diseases, these viruses can sometimes lead to quite serious infections.
Under the therapeutic profile, unfortunately, there are no specific therapies to date for the treatment of each of these viruses, but rather generic symptomatic therapies and certain drugs, often steroids, for the more severe cases.
In general, however, the most widely used method of treatment of these infections is exactly to make use of antibiotics, in most cases administered without an effective necessity considering their inactivity on viruses, which are pathogens often prevailing in said pathologies, and whose abuse has also led today to the serious problem of bacterial resistance, which is so much discussed.
Therefore, in order to prevent the onset of phenomena of resistance to antibiotics, therapeutic alternatives have also been investigated, which provide for the use of oral antiseptics such as mouthwashes or tablets, based on chlorhexidine or benzydamine hydrochloride, or NSAIDs such as flurbiprofen, or other molecules with similar properties.
In fact, as said, they are symptomatic, which act on the painful symptom without resolving the cause underlying the same, associated to the simultaneous presence of one or more pathogens, also viral, among which often exactly human Adenovirus, human Rhinovirus and human Coronavirus.
The need to identify molecules having a remarkable virucidal activity, in particular against said viruses, is therefore still felt.
The object of the present invention therefore is to find an effective remedy against human Adenovirus, human Rhinovirus and human Coronavirus, which it is also well tolerated by the body.